Re: "Beginning of the End" for Programmers

JAB <here@is.invalid> writes:

On Tue, 25 Feb 2025 22:28:10 +0100, D <nospam@example.net> wrote:
 

European blacksmiths were many, but how many today?

Quite a few but most of them make ornamental forged ironwork
(Kunstschmiede), not agricultural or mining hardware, horse- and oxshoes,
nails, vehicle parts and all the other quotidian ferrous stuff.

Ah, but you have made a mistake! Programmers are not blacksmiths.

 
Programmers are kind of like the blacksmiths of our time.

Intersting metaphor, especially considering I'm a blacksmith.
I've made a lot of sculptural/ornamental stuff but in the 70s and 80s,
I sis quite a lot of hardware for the (now dramatically declined)
fishing industry.  My shop was a 100 yards from the wharf.

Oh, and I can program in C, Perl, Lisp too, but not as well as I can
beat hot iron.

I suppose this also applies to goldsmiths and silversmiths and the
like.

Nah.  The blacksmith had to make all the hammers, punches, gravers,
stakes, shears etc. that the the guys working in gold, silver and
copper used.

Basically, they are the people with a special skill set that
make everything that society needs to wage war or maintain the
economy.

The coppersmiths made cookware of enormously varigated sorts.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Showerthoughts/comments/28x7lg/programmers_are_kind_of_like_the_blacksmiths_of/

--
Mike Spencer                  Nova Scotia, Canada